Here, Kitty

2023 American Fiction Awards Finalist in General Fiction

Hillsdale, Massachusetts, is a small town brimming with secrets. Unfortunately for its residents, they don't stand a chance once they meet sixteen-year-old Kitty Kittrick. As subtle as a thunderstorm, Kitty barrels through life in bright tracksuits, armed with cheeky questions and disarming honesty. Without the usual teenage insecurities-or any sense of social boundaries-she somehow wrangles the town's most troubled citizens and drags them out of the hot mess they call lives.

But this isn't just Kitty's story. It's about the people caught in her orbit. Peter, the twenty-five-year-old Yale dropout turned reluctant tennis coach, realizes maybe dosing his parents with pot brownies and mocking his brother aren't exactly healthy hobbies. Nina, Kitty's older sister and guardian, fears Kitty will uncover their darkest family secret-and that she herself will spend every Saturday night alone. Dave, Peter's best friend, hides his Tinder hookups, gambling debts, and oh yeah, the fact that he's gay, from his neurotic parents. Kitty's neighbor Mia, freshly divorced, is battling a book-banning coworker, an ex-husband now dating her sister, and her own barely concealed loathing. Meanwhile, her ten-year-old son Adam hacks his dad's Amazon account to send the family self-help books on narcissism. They're all liars, but lovable ones.

The catch? Kitty has one rule: never lie-especially not to the people you love. But even she's tested when a stranger with a bad dragon tattoo rolls into town in a beat-up Corolla and manages to piss off the Starbucks barista.

Here, Kitty is a heartfelt, hilarious story about growing up, taking risks, confronting the past, and learning when to own your mistakes. Also: never go to Costco high. Duh.